


Mythical Mounts

by quills_at_dawn



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Vignette
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-20 09:01:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19989529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quills_at_dawn/pseuds/quills_at_dawn
Summary: After a lifetime of waiting to become the crowning glory of the Olympics, the Sacred Bull finds his life has taken a turn.[A series of vignettes from the Sacred Bull's POV]





	1. Olympia, Elis

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know where this came from but I needed to get it out of my head. Also, I do realise these are all Phobos skins but I swear mine have different personalities. 
> 
> For the Trope Bingo square: AU: Myth

**OLYMPIA, ELIS**

Today did not go as expected. 

It should have been a day of destiny, the culmination of a life’s work and training, the final charge to earn my place in the Elysium Fields. 

But then, these Olympics have not gone the way anybody expected. 

In place of Testikles, the old favourite, the winner of the Pankration is a handsome young Spartan with beads in his hair, and all of Olympia fêted him through the night with much noise and quantities of wine. His two particular friends — a fiery Athenian general and a rough but very pious sort — call him a god, Eagle-Bearer and son of Zeus, and in the hours before dawn, while the stars are still out, they come to me. 

The Athenian chose me out of all the other bulls after some very close scrutiny. I believe he has a fine eye for quality but he must have been even more inebriated than he looked because he kept saying I remind him of his friend, the Pankration champion — which I did not understand — and that it would be a shame to sacrifice me — which I understood even less. 

But the new champion laughed and agreed and decided to keep me. He vaulted onto my back, still clad in nothing but a loincloth, scented oil, and his hair beads, and we charged around Olympia to much mirth and applause. Not entirely decorous and not quite the gravitas I’d expected for the occasion but I confess I got carried away by the festive atmosphere and the general enthusiasm, and I admit I thoroughly enjoyed myself. 

Once we were both tired out, we stopped a little outside the village and looked at the lights, the banners, the people dancing in the streets carrying torches in their hands. An eagle called Ikaros came and settled on the champion’s forearm so that part, at least, was true. 

He took the three of us back to his lodgings where the pious one, the one he calls Barnabas, was waiting for us and they agreed to meet on the coast before going on to Adrestia — perhaps their hometown.

This is not how I expected today to go but I’m excited, I’ve always wanted to travel. Elysium can wait. 


	2. Elis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Sacred Bull leaves home for the first time in his life.

**ELIS**

I went beyond the city walls for the first time in my life. 

The countryside in Elis is beautiful. We left in the afternoon by the eastern gate and continued on in the delicious coolness of the marshes. We were attacked by wolves but I charged them. Then we were attacked by bandits but the Eagle-Bearer shot them down without even dismounting. He shoots as true and as powerfully as Achilles himself. 

Ikaros joins us when we come to rest in the shade of some willows and the Eagle-Bearer praises my gilded horns and my speed, delighted that despite my size I’m as quick and nimble as any of his horses. He’s a vocal and affectionate rider. He speaks fondly of Adrestia too, he must have a happy home there. His other mounts must be there too and I find myself eager to reach it and meet them. 

The wild grasses of the marsh are delicious. 

The sky darkens as we follow a high ridge towards the coast and we catch sight of the sea just as the salt air hits us, as invigorating as a cold bath. It is vast and breathtaking. I’d never thought I would live to see open water like this. 


	3. Kyllene, Elis

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Sacred Bull reaches the Adrestia and meets the other mounts.

**KYLLENE, ELIS**

"Adrestia" is the name of a ship. 

The Eagle-Bearer has a whole stable of mounts. 

Two of them are unicorns. One is Pegasos himself. 

The others are… I’m not sure what the others are. 

It appears we are to leave these shores and that to do so I must board said ship. 

This is altogether more novelty than I was expecting. 

This ship tangs in the more terrifying way but the crew are in high spirits. The pious one appears to be leading them. I trust to Zeus they know what they’re doing. 

Below deck, the other mounts and I are in rather close quarters. 

Pegasos is stunningly beautiful. In the sunlight he was pale as Aphrodite’s sea froth and here in the gloom his ever-moving wings glow with trapped moonlight. He’s a simple creature, friendly and chirpy, and after only the briefest of introductions he came and settled by me, warming himself on me. 

They listened to my story with interest and do not seem at all surprised at my impromptu adoption. 

Pegasos cannot quite articulate how he came to meet the Eagle-Bearer. He only remembers being summoned and appearing out of the waves. I can almost believe it. Any of us would answer the call for a son of Zeus. 

The white unicorn is more articulate and says he was bought by the Eagle-Bearer for drachmae, like a common goat, sold by merchants who took him and described him as “an uncommonly handsome stallion”. Hard to believe, given the glowing horn and hooves, but apparently most men see him that way — just as they do the black unicorn and, even more incredibly, Pegasos — save the Eagle-Bearer who sees his true nature. He claims he could have escaped at any moment but chose to stay because he is a close student of human folly. He is also fond of the Eagle-Bearer, I think. They all sound it. 

The black unicorn, more discreet, says his is a similar story and leaves it at that. He could be Nyx’s shadow itself, dark and soft as midnight, every move of his horns or hooves, every swish of his tail throws up a trail of stars. 

The white unicorn watches me in an intent way that makes me uncomfortable.

Night falls, the men above quieten, and Pegasos, who likes to sleep in darkness and who is bothered by the glow of horns, falls asleep wedged between my flank and the black unicorn’s, head tucked under one of his quivering wings. And so we sleep, rocked by the waves. 


	4. Seriphos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew reach Seriphos.

**SERIPHOS**

We land on an island called Seriphos, which the unicorn says is a home base of sorts, somewhere to dry out the ship, rest and recover in relative safety. It appears the Eagle-Bearer is a mercenary, as are many of his crew, and this is the closest thing to home after the ship itself. 

The village is small and it welcomes back the familiar ship and its drachmae-laden crew. Pegasos seems particularly beloved and even the cocksure village roosters seem happy to see him. 

Pegasos is even more beautiful in this light, against the paler rock and brighter colours, than he was in Elis. However, he shows up every speck of dirt or soot and has to be constantly fussed over to be kept clean. 

He is also one of the most simple-minded creatures I have ever met. 

White Unicorn says that it is because managing those wings as well as four limbs uses up so much of his brain power. He jests, I think, but there may be something in it. Pegasos loves the water but he has reached maturity without realising that he loses a great deal of heat through his wings, especially in cold seawater. He frolics and prances and jumps over wave after wave, then comes out trembling with every limb and every feather, and wants to press his stone cold body against one of us while he suns himself. And then as soon as he’s warm again, off he goes back into the water. 

Pegasos does not drink the seawater, however, whereas unicorn magic is apparently powered by salt and both unicorns drink seawater by the gallon like they think it might run out. White Unicorn also eats flowers, especially pink ones, sometimes even the ones the village children hang in garlands around Pegasos’ neck. 

Perhaps it’s my garland he looks at so covetously.


	5. Keos, Pirate Islands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This thing is totally getting out of hand...

KEOS, PIRATE ISLANDS

We have gone to Keos where the Eagle-Bearer has business with the local pirate queen. 

Life on Seriphos is soft and sweet. The sleepy village is so quiet and peaceful the crew routinely sneak into the customs warehouses for supplies without raising the alarm. Life is simple, easy. The sun warms us, the sea cools us, trees, shrubs, grasses, everything bursting with life, and plenty of ripe pomegranates for Peggy to gorge and make himself sick on. 

On Keos, however, reigns perpetual Chaos.

We were charged by a murderous wild hog as soon as we got off the Adrestia. His brisling rage and tusks were no match for my muscles and my horns, however, which was just as well because Peggy just stood there, fluttering his wings and hoping to make friends. More fledgling dove than demigod. 

And yet, White Unicorn says the Eagle-Bearer favours him as his mount, mostly because “it’s hard to argue with flying, even if it is more of a glide”. There might be something in that but I think Peggy and the Eagle-Bearer may also have sympathetic characters. The Adrestia’s figurehead is a winged horse. 

Peggy is very attached to the Eagle-Bearer and gets separation anxiety whenever he leaves — perhaps another reason the Eagle-Bearer often takes him along — but then when he leaves, Peggy gets separation anxiety from us. So when, after his talk with the statuesque piratess, the Eagle-Bearer’s business takes him to the interior, we all end up going. 

White is intrepid and adventurous and often disappears for nearly an hour at a time. His pearlescent coat is water, dirt and weatherproof and other than the tales he tells us and the treats he brings back — flowers, shiny rocks, branches of pomegranates for Peggy — there are no clues as to what he gets up to. Blackie is like the Eagle-Bearer’s shadow, sometimes his presence is clear and evident like in the lengthening hours of the day, and other times barely perceptible. 

After an afternoon of seeing to jobs and pausing at pools to rest and drink, we reach the top of a promontory crowned by a huge statue of a reclining lion. 

The Eagle-Bearer leaves us there to chase after a nearby quarry. I find a quiet ledge where I settle to admire the spectacular view, all those islands waiting to be explored laid out in the glittering amber sea. 

These islands are so different from Elis — from the colour of the rocky ground, to the shape of the trees, to the taste of the grass that always has a tang of iodine on it. 

More than ever I’m conscious of how far I am from home, but Peggy settles against me, whinnying softly as he rearranges his wings, and it’s impossible to feel homesick. 

As the sun sets, the sky turns to lilac and the sea to lavender. The Eagle-Bearer returns with a few scrapes and bruises, a bloodied sword and a pleased smile, and Ikaros circling above him. He collapses onto the ground, leans against me, and grins as he tells us of his escapade. 

The unicorns touch their horns to his wounds to heal them. Peggy licks him but I do not believe that has any remedial effect. 

From the Port of Koressia where it had dropped us off, the Adrestia has come around and now waits for us at the mouth of a shallow bay. Most of the crew has stripped to nearly nothing or less, laughing and calling out as they splash in the cool water after the heat of the day, pulling themselves onto the trireme’s ram to rest or dive back in. 

Peggy breaks into a trot and has soon thrown himself into the water. The rest of us follow, including the Eagle-Bearer who laughs, shedding bits of armour along the beach. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
